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Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Christians are always in a state of warfare [whether they realize it or not] with the enemy of our souls. The Bible tells us precisely who these enemies are and how to prevail over them. We are given powerful weapons with which to wage spiritual warfare, but our weapons are very different from what one would expect a Christian soldier to need. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, that means they are not natural weapons. They are not weapons that can be manufactured through human invention. But the weapons God gives us are mighty through Him. They are powerful spiritual weapons that will pull down every stronghold the enemy may have in our lives.

The only way to defeat powerful spiritual opponents (principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness... and spiritual wickedness....) is by putting on the whole armor of God.

This is not optional. Christians must use every spiritual weapon at our disposal. The "whole" armor means wearing every piece of it... at all times.

The only offensive weapon we are given is the spoken Word of God, utterance which must always be in line with the written Word of God, applied under the direct leading of the Holy Spirit of God. Jesus gave us a perfect example of this in Matthew chapter four, when he stuck stubbornly to his iteration and re-iteration of, "It is written...."

The prophet Isaiah confirmed this when he wrote that those whose words did not line with what was already written had, "No light in them (Isaiah 8:20).

10: Finally my
brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might[1]

[1] This simple statement,
frequently glossed over and even sometimes forgotten, in studies of spiritual
warfare, is the nexus, the beginning and the end, the alpha and omega of the
entire subject. It is so easy to fall into the deception of self-sufficiency, to
confuse the power of our might with the power of His might. Yes, King
David had physically mighty men in
his army. Yes, Bathsheba wrote of valiant
women in her letter to her son. We read about in Proverbs chapter 31. All
Christians, both women and men, are commanded be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. A premiere
example of how to do this, is found in the life of Moses. Moses, was the most
powerful man among all the Hebrews, yet the most humble person on earth. When faced
with the overthrow of his God-ordained government, Moses did not rally the
armies, but rather fell on his face before God in intercession and prayer for a
people who were condemning themselves. He knew that real victory entailed much more
than mere physical victory over a physical enemy. Moses was raised a prince in
Egypt. He was a physically powerful man trained in physical warfare. He was
capable of fighting and single-handedly defeating multiple adversaries,
simultaneously. Yet, when he became God’s man, we never again see even a hint
of the masculine pride that had dominated his early life.

This is an excerpt from
the Hungry Hearts Online Bible Commentary HHBC

Christian Book Publisher, Jocelyn Andersen, is the author of, Woman Submit! Christians & Domestic Violence, For more information about her books, visit her author page at amazon.com/author/jocelynandersen